Author:

George Conger

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby,
is travelling to Cairo to meet with the primates of the Global South and GAFCON
movements. In a roundtable discussion organized by the Council on Foreign
Relations held in Washington on 13 Oct 2015, Archbishop Welby stated he would
be flying Cairo to join a meeting of the conservative and center-right primates
of the Anglican Communion.

Archbishops from Asia, Africa, North and South America
are meeting this week at All Saints Cathedral, Cairo, to discuss a common
response to Archbishop Welby’s invitation to attend a primates’ gathering in
January in Canterbury. Sources tell Anglican Ink that no decision has yet been
reached, but the working understanding among the group is that they will act as
a bloc.

Thomas Gjelten, National Public Radio's religion and
belief correspondent, asked Archbishop Welby if he shared Pope Francis view
that “ideological colonization”, the “tendency of liberal congregations in the
north sort of imposing their kind of liberal agenda around social issues on the
south.”

Mr Gjelten added: “We’re all familiar, I think, with what
happened here in the Episcopal Church a few years ago, with the ordination of a
gay bishop, and the ramification that that—ramifications that has had
throughout the south.”

The archbishop responded by first noting of the important
role played by religion in the lives of the “people in the global south,
whether it’s politicians or church leaders, religious leaders, we need to
remember that religion in the global south is still THE predominant feature of
life.”

The issue of human sexuality was “one that goes intensely
deeply into the way that the world is understood by all of us. It’s a question
of identity for many people—for almost all people. And the imposition, as it is
seen in the global south, of new approaches to what it is to be human is
resented more deeply than it is possible to describe. And this isn’t
obscurantism. It is a sense of, hang on, you are telling us whom and what we
should be.”

“A senior figure in one country said to me a few years
ago—he said, I didn’t go through—he was an elderly man then—he said, I didn’t
go through the colonial period and get rid of you people in order for you to
come back in a different form and do the same to me as you were doing before.
And I think there’s that sense that colonialism has not stopped.”

Archbishop Welby noted the issue was influenced by modern
man’s self-understanding. “The postmodernist move toward radical autonomy has a
profound effect on the way we see how society should be structured, which does
not cohere with many other countries.”

The archbishop rejected the notion that truth was
relative to culture, time or place -- Christ was central to the Christian, but
how Christ was understood could be influenced by culture.

“At the heart, at the core is the encounter with Jesus
Christ—with the risen, living, present Jesus Christ. For those who are
Christians, we understand that in different ways, but we meet Jesus. It is—it
is all about Jesus. There isn’t another way. It’s not a body of doctrine in
which Jesus features. It’s about Jesus, and the doctrine springs from the
church’s struggle to understand who this figure was, this figure understood to
be both fully god and fully human.”

The issue facing the Anglican Communion was one of
doctrine, if it could develope, how it could develop, and whether development
must be uniform across the Church.

“We struggle with wanting our own view of how that
doctrine applies to be the universal view. So no, we can’t just say, well, you
know, in England you can believe this and in Kenya you can believe that. That’s
not how Christian faith works. At the heart of—you know, we believe that in
Christ we’re all one. National barriers and racial barriers and stereotypes are
broken down or extinguished, dissolved. That is crucial, and that’s my hope and
vision for the Communion. My prayer for the Communion is it will be a which
says, in a world of immense diversity coming at you, in your face, there is
hope to live together, to be a people who collaborate for the common good,
serving Christ. And the Anglican Communion is one of those bodies that should
demonstrate that.

The ordination of women was an example of staggered
development, he said, in response to Mr. Gjelten’s question that the Churches
of the Anglican Communion had approached the “issue of the role of women sort
of at their own pace.”

One of his responsibilities as Archbishop of Canterbury
was to help the Communion “build structures that enable us to be able to trust
each other and not to be drawn into conflict by our structures within any
institution, any global institution. And that’s a massive challenge. It’s a
massive challenge for everyone here, as well as for us.”Secondly, you do have to spend time going to see people
and sitting down with them and listening with them. So when I’m in Cairo later
in the week, I will be sitting, listening to some global south primates who
will be quite critical of the things I’ve done, and they may well be right.
There’s often plenty to be critical of. And I will listen to them. We will pray
together. And the diversity is held in personal relationship.”